Spectrum analyzers are test and measurement tools that are widely used by engineers and technicians to measure the frequency content of an RF signal, as well as other functions involving power and time. As the technology has advanced, some conventional functions that were once manually controlled became more automated so that less setup and configuration actions were required to be performed by the user.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,215 discusses a spectrum analyzer in which the degree of attenuation provided by the input attenuator of the spectrum analyzer could be automatically set to an optimum value with regard to the prevention of generation of spurious signal components within the spectrum analyzer due to distortion, i.e., primarily due to harmonic distortion resulting from nonlinearity of the mixer frequency conversion characteristics when a large amplitude signal was applied.
Nevertheless, it is still necessary in traditional spectrum analyzers for a human to manually configure certain settings based on knowledge of the signal or its characteristics before extracting a useful measurement or producing a useful spectrum. Given that the feature set of spectrum analyzers continues to expand, along with the complexity of multi-band architectures, mixed domain oscilloscopes (MDOs), and the like, it would be desirable to automate more of the initial configuration settings. Accordingly, a need remains for an improved spectrum analyzer capable of automatically setting the center frequency, span, and/or down converter signal path.